SNP need to make tracks on roads
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
I WAS very pleased to have the opportunity last Tuesday to speak at the conference of the International Association of Transport Professionals which was held in Aviemore.
The conference came at a very important time for transport in Scotland.
Just a few days earlier, the Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney announced his spending review covering the years up until 2016.
This review was delayed from a year ago when the UK Government conducted its own equivalent exercise.
After that long a wait, there were high hopes of some badly needed detail on Scotland’s transport investment plans but – at best – it was a story of detail deferred (again) until the publication of a Scottish Infrastructure Plan later this autumn.
The UK Government understands just how important transport investment is to getting our economy growing in every part of the country.
We are facing huge financial challenges, and the global economic situation remains choppy to say the least, but we have committed to investing more on transport over these four years than was spent in the last four years.
Those investment decisions generate a dividend to the Scottish Government and it is for Ministers in Edinburgh to decide how to spend that money.
Boosted by new borrowing powers which will help meet the one-off costs of building a second Forth Road crossing, they should be able to do even better.
Transport is, if anything, especially important to Scotland and our economy, so they need to rise to that challenge.
While it is very welcome to see the extended stretch of dual carriageway open on the A9 at Crubenmore, it also serves to highlight the fact that we are still working from a transport plan which was put in place more than four years ago by Tavish Scott when he was Transport Minister.
The SNP have presided over a series of delays in delivering that plan, and some serious mistakes have been made along the way, like the fiasco over the overtaking lane at Moy. But, despite many fine promises, they have put in place no new plan of their own.
There will be a number of projects still outstanding when the old plan reaches its intended finishing date in less than six months time – including the upgrade at the Slochd, which is already three years late.
To help our economy now, we need more than the reheated dregs of a five-year-old plan.
People in the strath welcome the Crubenmore upgrade, but we wonder when the next new stretch of dual carriageway will be built on our side of the Drumochter Pass.
It doesn’t inspire much confidence that the Scottish Government’s strategy appears to be more about communication than construction.
They appear not to want to answer any questions or commit to any dates – but the price of politically-motivated dodge and delay is a real one which will be paid by local businesses who don’t know if or when they can expect improvements to become a reality.
Already we have seen that the rhetoric is not always backed up by action. £250 million has been taken out of the budget for the Forth crossing, but that money is being removed from the Scottish transport budget completely and spent on other priorities.
No one would deny that the key road and railway links serving the Highlands leave plenty to be desired. Devolution of power to Edinburgh has started to bring about positive change and the SNP promised to pick up the pace.
To date, their prevarication – and the prioritisation of new Central Belt road and railway projects above all others – is threatening to stall progress instead.
We have waited long enough for clarity – so the forthcoming infrastructure plan must be worth of the name.
The SNP have promised a lot on Highland transport and they now have complete control of billions of pounds of public money.
The time for them to deliver is now.
